That's a lot of the country knackered then. The government aren't exactly going to give any money for this when they're cutting back on everything else
Yeah, massive shame considering it'd help grow our economy in the high tech sector (our last remaining area of strength) and provide loads of jobs for the next few years to get it all built. It'd even be green - more people able to work and shop from home, remote consultations, etc
The costs aren't even that high compared to other big national infrastructure investments, like the railways and motorways. About the same as is being dropped on shaving a few minutes from Londoners train journeys which 90% of the country won't care about in the slightest.
It's a big up front cost, but once it's in it'd be good for years to come, they'd probably make all of the money back in less than a decade through tax revenues on the economic growth and the access fees they could charge ISP's. The last estimate I read was roughly £1000 per household to do the whole country. Over the lifetime of the fiber that's not a lot. A couple of quid extra over our monthly line rental to upgrade the copper to fiber.
The countryside isn't that much more expensive than most towns to wire up either, there's lower population density, but the telecoms mostly run overhead rather than underground.